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Thursday, July 2, 2009

Crockpot Mexican Chicken

Ready for the big 3-day weekend ahead? Going anywhere amazing? Jim and I plan on staying home and celebrating the Fourth of July since June was such a travel intensive month for me. During a busy month, like the one Jim and I just had, I'm all about making great tasting food the easy way. When I saw this recipe for the Crockpot Chicken Tacos on the Not So Skinny Kitchen, I thought to put it in my back pocket for a day when the last thing I wanted to do was stand in the kitchen and cook.

Her recipe for six servings goes like this:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 tablespoons jalapeno, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

14 ounces canned, diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons brown sugar

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

⅛ teaspoon chipotle chile powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Put all ingredients in Crockpot and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or low 6 to 8 hours or until meat can be shredded easily with fork. Serve with tortillas and toppings of your choosing.

I pulled my crockpot out and threw in three frozen chicken breasts. Why 3? Because they were stuck together and I didn't feel like messing with it.

Two fresh tomatoes that came from my CSA, Yummy Farms here in the Austin area.

Gave them both a rough chop and tossed them in.

One fat garlic clove, rough chopped.

2 locally grown onions from my CSA.

2 juicy jalapenos from my CSA.

I didn't even seed these, just gave them a rough chop and threw them in the pot.

I found this hiding in the back of my pantry so I threw in an entire jar of this medium spiced cilantro salsa.

I like the cumin flavor in southwest dishes, it gives foods another depth of flavor.

1/8 teaspoon of cayenne. Or more if you can take the heat.

1 teaspoon cumin.

1 teaspoon of chicken flavored bouillon.

Just mix it up the best you can.

Turn the heat on high and then let the crock pot do it's thing. Every hour or so I would walk by and give the mixture a stir. The chicken defrosted in the liquid quickly and cooked through in about four hours.

Once the chicken was fully cooked I moved them to a plate.

Then shred with two forks

and add back to the crock pot.

I let this heat through for another 30 minutes, but it's ready when you are!

If you are serving this at a party, I would simply turn heat to low and set out all the fixings around the crockpot and let guests help themselves.

The flavor was really good. I thought it was too soupy but I simply used tongs to remove the pulled chicken I wanted to use.

For Jim, I made a big burrito. Using a flour tortilla I spooned on the pulled chicken and added some chopped up pieces of jalapeno cheddar.

I first folded in the top and bottom then rolled it like a cigar.

Heated my cast iron skillet and then "grilled" each side of the burrito enough to melt the cheese inside.

I made a quesadilla for myself. Using half a tortilla I filled it with chicken and topped with cheese.